PLAYED AT: Air Canada CentreDate: Sep 29, 2016GAME NOTES: CANADA WINS 2016 WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY
WENDY GRAVES
TORONTO – The Little Ball of Hate may just be the most popular player in Canada.
Brad Marchand (Hammonds Plains, N.S./Boston, NHL) scored shorthanded with 44 seconds left in the third period and Canada defeated Team Europe 2-1 to win the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Canada swept the best-of-three final series.
Marchand took a drop pass from Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, Man./Chicago, NHL) and fired a shot from between the hash marks, beating Jaroslav Halak and putting an exclamation point on a fantastic tournament. The forward finished with eight points, including a team-leading five goals.
Marchand’s heroics were made possible by linemate Patrice Bergeron (Ancienne-Lorette, Que./Boston, NHL), who redirected a Brent Burns’ (Barrie, Ont./San Jose, NHL) point shot on the power play to tie the game with 2:53 remaining in regulation.
The third member of the line, Sidney Crosby (Cole Harbour, N.S./Pittsburgh, NHL), was named the Most Valuable Player. Marchand, Crosby and Bergeron was the team’s – and the tournament’s – best line, combining for 25 points in the tournament.
Carey Price (Anahim Lake, B.C./Montreal, NHL) finished with 32 saves, none bigger than the one he made on Marian Hossa from point blank range with 1:09 left in the third, setting the stage for Marchand 25 seconds later.
Canada had been the dominant team the entire tournament. Coming in the team had won 15 straight games in best-on-best competition: it was a perfect 5-0 at the World Cup, 6-0 at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games and had won its last four at the 2010 Games.
Here in Toronto it had outscored its opposition 22-7, outshot it in 12 of 15 periods and had successfully killed off all 15 penalties it had been called for
For 57 minutes on Thursday night none of that mattered.
Zdeno Chara gave Team Europe the lead 6:26 into the first period. Chara, booed every time he touched the puck both tonight and in Game 1 on Tuesday, took a short pass from Andrej Sekera and beat Price from the middle of the left face-off circle.
For the longest time it looked like it would be enough to force a winner-take-all game on Saturday. Team Europe outshot Canada in both the first and second periods, and its ability to neutralize the Canadian attack – and Canada’s sometimes sloppy play on its own – had the underdogs thinking upset.
But mixing up of its lines to start the third period seemed to give Canada the jolt it needed.
With the win Canada has now won six of the eight World and Canada Cups contested.

Visiting Team: Europe

Home Team: Canada

EUROPE LINEUP

Pos

No.

Name

G

1

Greiss, Thomas

G

31

Grubauer, Philipp

G

41

Halak, Jaroslav

2

Sekera, Andrej

5

Sbisa, Luca

7

Streit, Mark

8

Rieder, Tobias

10

Ehrhoff, Christian

11

Kopitar, Anze

12

Gaborik, Marian

21

Tatar, Tomas

22

Niederreiter, Nino

26

Vanek, Thomas

29

Draisaitl, Leon

33

Chara, Zdeno

36

Hansen, Jannik

44

Seidenberg, Dennis

51

Nielsen, Frans

59

Josi, Roman

63

Zuccarello, Mats

78

Bellemare, Pierre-Edouard

81

Hossa, Marian

89

Boedker, Mikkel

EUROPE PENALTIES

Per.

No.

Min

Offence

Off

PP

PS

Start

On

1st

78

2:00

Hooking

10:52

1

10:52

12:52

1st

22

2:00

Slashing

14:49

1

14:49

16:49

3rd

59

2:00

Delay of Game

2:17

1

2:17

4:17

3rd

11

2:00

Holding

16:25

1

16:25

18:25

CANADA LINEUP

Pos

No.

Name

G

31

Price, Carey

G

50

Crawford, Corey

G

70

Holtby, Braden

4

Bouwmeester, Jay

6

Weber, Shea

7

Muzzin, Jake

8

Doughty, Drew

9

Duchene, Matt

15

Getzlaf, Ryan

16

Toews, Jonathan

20

Tavares, John

24

Perry, Corey

27

Pietrangelo, Alex

28

Giroux, Claude

37

Bergeron, Patrice

39

Couture, Logan

44

Vlasic, Marc-Edouard

63

Marchand, Brad

87

Crosby, Sidney

88

Burns, Brent

90

O'Reilly, Ryan

91

Stamkos, Steven

97

Thornton, Joe

CANADA PENALTIES

Per.

No.

Min

Offence

Off

PP

PS

Start

On

1st

88

2:00

Hooking

12:30

1

12:30

14:30

2nd

2:00

Hooking

0:32

1

0:32

2:32

3rd

8

2:00

High-Sticking

18:10

1

18:10

20:00

EUROPE Goals

EUROPE PLAYERS (plus)

CANADA PLAYERS (minus)

Per.

Time

G-As1-As2

1st

6:26

33-2-1

CANADA Goals

CANADA PLAYERS (plus)

EUROPE PLAYERS (minus)

Per.

Time

G-As1-As2

3rd

17:07

PP

37-88-87

3rd

19:16

SH

63-16-27

POWER PLAY OPPORTUNITIES

EUROPE

0 / 3

CANADA

1 / 4

PENALTY SUMMARY

EUROPE

8 min / 4 inf

CANADA

6 min / 3 inf

POINT SUMMARY

EUROPE

1 G + 2 A = 3 Pts

CANADA

2 G + 4 A = 6 Pts

SCORING

1

2

3

Total

EUROPE

1

0

0

1

CANADA

0

0

2

2

GOALTENDER/SAVES (Time)

1

2

3

Tot.

On

Off

EUR - Halak (60:00) (L)

8

13

9

30

/0:00

3rd/20:00

CAN - Price (60:00) (W)

11

15

5

31

/0:00

3rd/20:00

Stars of the Game

TIME OF GAME:

-

Start:

-

End:

-

Attendance:

OFFICIALS

Referee:

Referee:

Linesman:

Linesman:

CERTIFIED CORRECT

This report has been checked and verified against the Official World Cup of Hockey Game Report.